Page 99 of Useless Love

“We need to watch him,” I tell Nico, and finally it looks like my brother is also suspicious.

“I ordered some men to do just that,” he says. “Everything he does is monitored.”

Sighing, I grab my sister’s arm and pull her off to a bedroom. With the door closed, I face her, ready to finally hash things out.

She crosses her arms and sits on the bed. “What do you want?”

“That’s a dumb question. I want the man who shot Father to die.”

Her eyes get teary since my sister is so fucking weak. She lowers her head and looks at the floor. “Well, I don’t know who that is any more than you do.”

“Don’t you?”

“No!” she shouts, finally showing some courage. “We don’t know if Carmine did this! I’m struggling to believe my husband would hurt my father because I love him. He’s only been caring and kind to me and always talked like he wanted peace.”

I move to the window, looking out at this suffocating city. “Love. You’re so dumb, Gaia. Love is a useless emotion because it causes this. It makes you blind. It made Father blind, didn’t it? He was growing a fondness for Carmine and let his guard down. Now look what happened?”

“So you just immediately jump to Carmine? Father has other enemies.”

“Sure. But none as close. You never suspect a hit when it’s family. Carmine is smart enough to know that.”

She wipes her wet cheeks, shaking her head. “He…cares for me.”

I laugh. “Cares? So he hasn’t even told you he loves you? Oh, Gaia, why are you always so innocent? You’re betraying your family for a man who just wants you to pop out sons.”

“I love him…”

I let her sit there and cry as I stare out the window. I wasn’t expecting my sister to fall for that monster, so maybe I should have never asked her to swap. If I had courted Carmine myself, maybe I could’ve won him over by just sucking his cock enough.

Sighing, I return to the bed. I guess I can’t blame my sister entirely for this—she has always been too innocent for her own good. “Love makes us all fools,” I tell her. I’ve never been in love and never want to be, but I’ve seen it bring ruin to plenty of people I’ve known.

“I heard something…” Gaia says in a small voice.

“Heard what?”

“I heard Carmine talking to someone. He said, ‘Take the old man out.’”

“What? And you didn’t think to tell anyone? Gaia, he was clearly talking about Father.”

“We don’t know that. I didn’t think anything of it because that’s his life. That’s what being the head of an organization is.”

“When did you hear this?”

She fiddled with the hem of her shirt. “Um…last week.”

“You’re a fool in love. Shit. There are songs written about this very thing.”

“No,” she says. “I keep trying to decide if he would actually hurt Father. Deep down, I don’t think Carmine would do this. The Carmine I know is protective of me. Hurting father would devastate me and so he wouldn’t…”

Even though I’m terrible at comforting people, I put my arm around Gaia’s shoulder. “I got you into this, I suppose. I’ll have to get you out.”

Her head snaps up. “Don’t hurt him.”

“If Carmine is responsible for our father getting shot, I’ll personally make sure he joins his brothers.”

Turning pale, Gaia looks at me in pain and says, “Please, Ari.”

I’m too annoyed at my sister to continue this conversation, so I stand. “It’s time for you to grow the fuck up. This is the real world, not one where you fall in love and get a happily ever after. All I’ve done is try to protect this family by—”

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